Is it, though? American views on gay issues have changed pretty dramatically over the last 20 years, for example - the Overton Window has definitely shifted. Gay rights are a traditionally leftist issue now widely embraced. But if you look at individual issues, it might show that Democrats have all shifted over in support of gay issues, with Republicans not doing so at all. In this format, that shows Democrats shifting to the left, when that actually represents Republicans shifting right, against the movement of the Window.
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Ack…typo! Chart is from 1971!!
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Diverse?
The democratic party has become a money making machine with no vision, the left has been driven out as a liability to that goal.
So we have one party that embraces the brutality of capitalism (well for other people in theory) and another one that thinks it just needs adjustment to work for -most- people.
That’s why the democrats are standing with their junk in their hands right now, they don’t know how to make that fantasy a reality.
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Both parties are now run by crazy extremists. We need to start a new one.
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I like the play on words with ‘faux’, but pronouncing it correctly just ruins the effect. Oh, well.
Not to mention wealthy and business interests involved in the creation of right-wing propaganda. I don’t want to posit some sort of conspiracy, but I do think there was some sort of deliberate effort to split the country. It worked well, with people on the right believing all their problems were due to minorities, immigrants, non-Christians, and that evil government. Obama’s election was perfect media fodder. Gad, maybe they helped elect him! Nah, they aren’t that bright. Are they?
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No no no you need to meet in the more middle. The middlest. Just keep walking right and we’ll tell you when to stop, promise!
@bibliophile20 Said even better.
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eyeroll False equivalence fallacy and false balance fallacy again? Is it Tuesday? You’re going to have to define who the “crazy extremists” are on the Left, Max, because, last I checked, there wasn’t anyone like Bannon or Trump at large in the Democrats, much less running the place.
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It is simple, a little Christian ethics was tailor made for these situations. It is not about them but rather your own stoic response.
But I say unto you, That ye resist not evil: but whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also.
Mathew 5:39
That sounds a lot like a recipe for two slapped cheeks to me. Does it say anything about punching the asshole just before they go to slap you a second time?
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You may be right. There is an anti-christ response too.
“Democracy and free speech are not facets of one gem; democracy and free speech are eternal enemies. But in any battle between an institution and an idea, the idea, in the long run, has the better of it. Here I do not venture into the absurdity of arguing that, as the world wags on, the truth always survives. I believe nothing of the sort. As a matter of fact, it seems to me that an idea that happens to be true—or, more exactly, as near to truth as any human idea can be, and yet remain generally intelligible—it seems to me that such an idea carries a special and often fatal handicap. The majority of men prefer delusion to truth. It soothes. It is easy to grasp. Above all, it fits more snugly than the truth into a universe of false appearances—of complex and irrational phenomena,”
― Friedrich Nietzsche, The Antichrist
Imma go for the metal one then. 
It’s amazing. I know the term ‘reactionary’ gets chucked around a lot, but you can actually see the ‘reaction’ happen.
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I don’t understand. Apparently, this graphic indicates that the republican party radicalizes and moves further towards the right. Why do they do that? Does it really bring them more votes (and from whom, then)?
White racists.
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This. The dead horse that I have been beating to death is that while in the 60s the major divide between the parties was economic policy, now it’s social. It wouldn’t surprise me if you could design a survey that asked mostly questions of economic policy while avoiding any “race” dogwhistles it would show that the parties have become MORE similar over time. Things like “Are unions a good thing or a bad thing?” “Should the minimum wage be raised” etc. The problem is that in the past, you could sympathize with people who want more money JUST LIKE YOU DO, and can fairly easily come to a compromise where you split the pie. But social quandries are often much nastier fights because they are MORAL issues and are often VERY difficult to compromise on.
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It explains for example why the Democratic Party establishment wants to go to right as a strategy to fight Republicans, and why they lose elections doing it: a layer of the youth of the working class, radicalized by the 2008 crises and bank bailout, is increasingly feeling less represented by the two party system.
If there was ever a time for a figure like Sanders to help build a new mass party, it’s now.
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Yeah, various polls asking questions about economics and budget priorities, income inequality, etc. that I’ve seen referenced seem to show a great deal of agreement between people of the two parties (even though they’re very much out of sync with Republican party platforms). If I remember correctly, the difference between the two was that Republicans tended to think the things they wanted to see were already the case.
So that leaves homophobia, racism, sexism and theocracy as Republican issues, in a country that’s become less religious and a lot less homophobic…
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